The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Norton

Well you beat me to it. Guess the old saying "you snooze you lose" is still true.

Spin

Reading Thai, pointless. Writing Thai pointless. Fluent Thai pointless.
Basic Thai/Lao, essential.

ChiangMai noon

^
another troll.

kingwilly

agreed.

Texpat

I can't imagine living here for years and not being able to read.

Don't you ever drive down the road and wonder what is written on all the signs?

Don't you ever pick up something in a store and wonder what the package says?

Wouldn't you like to look at someone's Thai ID card and know what their name is without having to ask?

Maybe not. As someone said before, it's not that difficult to read.

Bluecat

I can't imagine living here either without being able to speak and read Thai language.
I'm just surviving so far...

Bluecat

And for the people who did not understand this comment.
I work here, this is why I'm here.
When the work is gone, the equation changes...

DrB0b

Jeez. Thai is a useless language, nobody wants to learn it as it's unimportant to the world scene? I had no idea I was in the presence of such big time players on the world stage. I was under the impression this forum was full of expats, losers, whoremongers, retirees, and ex-shelfpackers, who would have though it was packed to the gills with such big important people? People who can't waste their time learning non-international languages, after all they may be called upon to address the UN or solve the middle-east crisis at any time, the kind of guys who may have to leave the BJ bar at a moments notice and jet into Darfur to sort out those damn Janjaweed. I wonder if Thailand knows just how lucky it is to have you guys gracing its territory? Pity you can't tell them that in their own language.

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Boon Mee

They basically don't give a shit. Usually laugh at my feeble attempts to articulate but that's OK - used to it. You can live in Thailand all your life and speak Thai like a native but you'll always be a Farang. Even the girls when they find out you do comprehend switch to some obscure Issan dialect or Cambodian or something...

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ผมเป็นคนบ้านนอก

watterinja

Agreed.

ProjectExcelsior

I can't believe the narrow-minded nature of some of you plebs, you seem to be proud of not being able to speak thai. You ought to be ashamed. So what if it's not the big bad language that English or Spanish is that everyone speaks of.

If you're living in Thailand no matter what your 'style' is if you make an effort to speak 'decent' thai, (not the hooker bar variant either) people will respect you much more and when you're up shit creek with a broken down car, lost or arrested etc you won't be panicking about whats going on around you.
Sorry Dr Bob is that too much 'Big Time' Player style to you. I'll get back to my UN meetings now

Marmite the Dog

I had a taxi driver who said I was very polite the other day, and thanked me for trying to speak his language with courtesy and respect. Blimey!

chinthee

Oh, for Christ's sake, I speak Thai better than most loser farangs. Why the insistence upon perferction? What is so shameful about speaking perfectly passable conversational Thai?'

Christ almightly, it's a country that is the smallest blemish on the buttocks of the earth!

Get some perspective people. This country means nothing in the greater scheme of things.

Spin

Its no big deal, daily interaction with Thais has shown me that when you ask for directions they dont know.
Ask a shop assistant for some advice or information on some product, they dont know.
Just this evening in a restaraunt the cashier used a focking calculator to subtract 34 from 200.

I just dont see the point in integrating too much in this country, sorry but there aint much to be learned from these guys on any level higher that "have you eaten yet?" so thats the level I'm gonna stay at.

Maybe its a kind of delusion of granduer that drives you to say that?

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Is there some special school where you people learn to talk that bollocks?
Nicholas Garrigan, Last King Of Scotland.

Spin

You know thats not the case, I'm like Smeg in that i dont kiss ass Thailand and for good reasons. All you guys who wanna run around fitting in so much will be leaving the same day as me if they strike oil.

Troubled

There is the key.
Language is a means to communicate. Most of how we communicate anyhow is by body language not by word. Just ask Marcel Marceau ( Well you could if he were still alive)
Being able to speak any language used where one is living has got to assist in this communication process as it will provide more tools.

It is possible to communicate at some level without speaking Thai.

As Texpat has said speaking Thai is perhaps less imperative in the larger or more cosmopolitan communities and that if you do live in the wilds the "local" language might not even be Thai

NickA

What are you talking about?

robin

Proficiency in the language becomes more relevant if you need to work or do business as an expat.

I live and work in Germany and although the language isn't much use outside Germany (even most of its neighbours don't want to hear it), I couldn't get through a day without it.

The same applies here as in Thailand:many people don't have much of interest to say but in any emergency or dispute you're up shit creek and seriously disadvantaged if you don't command the local lingo, not to mention the handicap of finding work if you can't read the want ads.

Ivor Biggun

How do you know the difference between the smug type and those that, let's say, have learning difficulies. I have, I feel, a justified reason as to why I find learning Thai difficult. So I feel some what offended to be bracketed as 'I won't stoop to learn Thai types'. Perhaps I should wear a badge saying 'I'm not smug, I just have difficulty in learning' ?
We can't all be clever fuckers.

slimboyfat

ok fair enough, but please bear in mind that this is a KW thread and may well make a ton.